Suggest budget CDP to use as transport

Oppo 103 has the qualities you mentioned as well as being reliable in the long run ($500). Nice thing is that if you ever find yourself looking for an improvement with it down the road you can call Ric Schultz over at EVS and investigate his transport mod for the 103. I did so and then liked that so much I sent mine back for him to mod the output stage for use as CDP as well and have been very happy with it. The transport mod was not too expensive as I recall and helped the overall sound nicely.

That said, I, too, believe I would take a look at that CEC as Mofimadness suggested. Many CEC models are known for their good transport performance.

There's an EAD T-1000 on site for 500 bucks. Great transport for the money.It uses the Pioneer stable mechanism. I owned one years ago and thought very highly of it. Good luck with your search...

Look for a used Sony 595. This is a SACD deck so the pickup is excellent and it has an optical output which should work with most DAC's. I have two of these and they often sound better then my Sony 777. Some of the chips in the unit went into most of Sony hi-end players.

Get the CEC....no brainer! Awesome transport that a Rotel or other player will not match!

CEC is quite good and speaks to anyone suspect of transports not making a difference in reproduction. They do.